This story is about some good people we know, who have never done anything wrong but try and find a better life. Now they are being deported back to the country they fled by the Government of Finland.

We met M. and P. on the 12th of June 2019, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Together with fifty-four other people and three kids; who were escaping Libya, leaving behind years of torture and abuse.

They met in Ivory Coast, where they both were born. Their marriage was violently opposed; M. is Christian, P. is Muslim, and their union was unacceptable to their community. So, they found someone who could help them to escape their country to Libya.

But Libya is not a safe place to find protection. In fact, it is a country deeply affected by a civil conflict, where being black means being an easy target for criminal organizations and uncoordinated militias. In Libya they were deliberately detained, robbed, and systematically tortured.

One day they found a way out from Libya: a precarious blue rubber boat headed to Europe. Onboard that overcrowded dinghy we met them for the first time. We spent eighteen days together onboard a rescue ship, waiting while entry to all the ports of safe countries was denied.

We parted at the port of Lampedusa on the 29 th of June. We got in contact with them again in December 2020, about one year and half after we parted ways in Italy.

After their disembarkation in Lampedusa, they had been asked to sign some documents, they were separated from the others, and put on an airplane. The airplane landed in an unknown cold country with an overwhelming northern wilderness and one of the most difficult languages in the world: the plane had landed in Finland.

Once in Finland they were guided to the Immigration center where they could apply to received international protection. They received temporary accommodation in the countryside of Lappeenranta.

In this remote empty corner between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, they waited for something to happen. With them, other expectant people shared this long wait to know their fate. They cannot communicate with each other, as they do not speak any common language. They are families of lonely people, stuck in this artificial Babel in the middle of nowhere.

M. and P. waited a long time, the leaves fell, and after them the snow, covering everything with a layer of silent oblivion. During this long winter, finally in February – about half a year after their arrival in Finland – and with barely any notice, the interview for asylum took place.

After the interview, time passed again in the same lengthy way. They received several documents in Finnish which they could not read. One month after their interview, they learned that their asylum was denied. The migration department provided a lawyer who appealed for a new interview. Since March there has been no progress.

Despite the fact that the final decision of the Supreme Court is still pending, a few weeks ago, the police came to tell M. and P. that they will be deported to Ivory Coast. They were told that if they won't accept voluntary deportation they will undergo forced repatriation.

With this petition we are asking for you to support our friends, good people who deserve better than what has been decided for them. They should not be sent back to a country where they are not safe.

Please sign to help stop their deportation.